Rob Reich’s claim that fruitful discussions about the balance among state, parental, and children’s educational interests would benefit by contemplating the widespread phenomenon of homeschooling is a welcome suggestion. His policy recommendations, however, place an unjustified burden on parents to show the adequacy of homeschooling arrangements instead of placing the burden on the state to clarify commonly agreed‐upon outcome measures. In this essay, Perry Glanzer argues that Reich places the burden on parents by overstating the threat that the freedom given (...) to homeschooling parents represents to the interests of liberal democratic states and children. Reich, Glanzer contends, also underestimates the state’s tendency to use regulation to weaken the civil society essential for liberal democracy. To counter Reich’s proposal, Glanzer offers recommendations regarding the proper limits of parental authority in education in general and in the case of homeschooling in particular. (shrink)

Although church-related universities in England gradually became more secular throughout the twentieth century, a group of nine teacher education colleges with church foundations have recently developed into full fledged universities. This article draws upon documentary and site-based research to evaluate the relevance of the Christian identity for these institutions in light of recent scholarship on the subject.

This essay examines James Davison Hunter's claim that the moral education establishment is responsible for the death of character. I contend that although Hunter's rhetoric about the "death of character" is distracting and his claims against the moral education establishment are overstated, moral educators must grapple with his finding that effective moral education requires a coherent moral culture with a clear conception of public and private good. I attempt to draw out the implications of Hunter's finding by comparing past Soviet (...) and current American forms of moral education. Finally, I conclude that the effectiveness of moral education is threatened not only when character is separated from its nourishing social, historical and cultural moorings, but also when moral autonomy and respect for diversity is undermined. Thus, in the last part of the essay, I discuss three possibilities for how public education can both allow comprehensive approaches to moral education and adhere to liberalism's appreciation for moral autonomy and diversity. (shrink)